Development and characterization of electrochemical cantilever sensor for bio/chemical sensing applications

We report the improvements made to our previously developed electrochemical cantilever (EC) sensor, where nanoporous gold material is employed as working electrodes in microcantilever arrays, while combined counter-reference electrodes are integrated on the chip. For a surface stress change of 1mN/m induced on the microcantilever, the cantilever deflects is 7.3 nm at the free end, indicating high sensitivity to surface stress changes. The results suggest that the performance of the electrochemical cell is stable. A much enhanced sensitivity in surface chemistry-driven actuation can be achieved by using nanoporous gold with a high-surface area to volume ratio.